The memory of a beloved pet inspires one couple's fight against injustice.

Monday, September 10, 2012

Why Does the Public Tolerate Corrupt Judges Who Steal From Them?

Gerald Bard Tjoflat

If I ran a video of a bank executive stealing money from a vault, it probably would go viral--and the public, understandably, would be outraged at what it was seeing.

I ran the judicial equivalent of such a video last week, presenting irrefutable evidence of judges in the U.S. Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals committing what amounts to flagrant theft. In fact, I ran two posts--one here, and one here--that included documents every bit as damning as any video could be. And I showed this is not an isolated incident, that the same judges had committed similar acts of thievery before--in a case that captured national attention.

So, where is the outrage? Why would we be appalled by the dishonest conduct of a bank executive, but shrug our shoulders at similar conduct from a federal judge? Why the double standard?

One could argue that the behavior of the judges actually is worse than that of our mythical banker. The banker likely would be paid via private funds while acting as a crook. The judges, on the other hand, are paid with public funds; they are using our own money to steal from us.

And make no mistake about it . . . corrupt judges, such as Gerald Bard Tjoflat and J.L. Edmondson of the Eleventh Circuit, are stealing. They are thieves who happen to wear robes.

My anger on this subject is palpable because Tjoflat and Edmondson directly cheated me on the case in question--a lawsuit over my wrongful termination at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). (You can read my response to UAB's Motion for Summary Judgment at the end of this post, and that document explains the relevant law; UAB's motion could not lawfully be granted, but it was, and the trial court's bogus ruling could not lawfully be upheld, but it was.) While I was the direct victim in this instance, all citizens are indirect victims of judicial thievery--and it's not just my opinion that Tjoflat and Edmondson are thieves; that's the term federal law uses to describe their actions.

Here is another term that applies to these judicial con artists--"repeat offenders." In fact, Tjoflat and Edmondson have been on a veritable crime spree in recent years, at taxpayer expense. They were on the three-judge panel that upheld unlawful convictions in the prosecution of former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman. Do the judges' corrupt actions have consequences? Well, Don Siegelman is due to report to federal custody tomorrow--for a "crime" that does not exist under the actual law. He stands to lose roughly six years of his freedom because of corrupt judges.

Tjoflat and Edmondson probably committed multiple federal crimes on the Siegelman and Schnauzer appeals. Obstruction of justice is one possibility; another is honest services mail and wire fraud. Let's focus briefly on the latter offense.

The definition of honest-services fraud was narrowed with the U.S. Supreme Court's 2010 ruling in a case involving former Enron executive Jeffrey Skilling. In Skilling, the court foundthat honest-services fraud could be present only in cases that involved a clear bribe or kickback. The theory behind honest-services fraud, however, has not changed.

"Underlying Sec. 1346 is the notion that a public official acts as trustee for the citizens and the State . . . and thus owes the normal fiduciary duties of a trustee, e.g., honesty and loyalty to them. THEFT of honest services occurs when a public official strays from this duty.'" (U.S. v. Sawyer, 239 F. 3d 31, 39, First Circuit, 2001.)

That brief paragraph drives home three pivotal points:

* The public official, in this case a judge, acts as a trustee for ALL citizens--not just the parties in a particular case;

* The public official, in this case a judge, owes a fiduciary duty to ALL citizens;

* When a public official strays from that duty, he commits THEFT of honest services.

See what I mean by calling Tjoflat and Edmondson thieves? See what I mean by saying that they are stealing from me--and from you? Those terms don't come from my imagination; they come straight from federal law.

After giving Shuler time to oppose the motions, the district court subsequently granted summary judgment to the UAB defendants based on the following findings . . .

Under the law, it's not a matter of giving me "time to oppose the motions." The nonmoving party (me, in this instance) must be given an opportunity to gather evidence via discovery. That's essentially what summary judgement is--a battle of evidence, to determine if there is a lawful reason to go to trial. I was given no such opportunity, even though I twice notified the court that no discovery had been conducted, and consideration of summary judgment would be premature and unlawful under those circumstances. (An Eleventh Circuit case styled Snook v. Trust Company of Georgia Bank of Savannah, 859 F. 2d 865, 1988 spells out the law on this issue.)

Parties normally hold a discovery conference, under Rule 26 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure ("General Provisions of Discovery"), and the court usually enters an order, establishing a plan and schedule for discovery. None of that was done in my case.

Why? I can think of only one reason: Discovery would unearth all sorts of e-mails and other communications showing who was responsible for cheating me out of my job--and both the trial and appellate courts are engaging in an intentional cover up.

As we've already shown, that amounts to theft; it's no different from a bank president walking into a vault and walking out with wads of cash sticking from his pockets.

Why are we outraged by one form of theft? Why do we tolerate the other?

10 comments:

Anonymous
said...

The Central Intelligence Agency, CIA is our government CONTROLLER.

The "Judges" are corrupted because the poor unsuspecting did not get that the job required them to sell their brains to the evil of so called "free market." Their retirement portfolios are the demise of their entire future. How not higher intelligent.

Free market to the human types that have to dress up in Holy look, robes, etc., and sit high above looking down at their same specie: HOW TO CONTROL all the humans who are born free.

Tragically American CULTURE became a programmed "reality." Paul Craig Roberts writes about how the Canadian "leader" has gone mad.

Of course Canada has gone mad. The drugs from the Afghanistan first "war," is no different than what Stalin and the Russians did, but it also destroyed Russia and that is how the drug biz goes.

JUSTICE IN THE US, controlled by the CIA and the CIA is in control of the drug biz globally, at this time. Losing ground though, too much drug use in the "troops."

How many commit suicide a day?

Same with the Russian story, and that is why the USA has not figured out at the JUDICIAL, yet, that the insane mad eyes do not lie, and look at the judges, listen to them, read the decisions.

In two words, gone mad.

Legal Schnauzer, did you get an accounting on Mrs. Schnauzer and your Social Security investment(s)?

How many years did you invest in a Social Security Retirement, you two? There must have been a huge sum of "residual" from that LABOR which is the REAL VALUE. You were paid contract salaries. The money was not disclosed as credit-debt and you (1) invested labor (2) and REAL MONIES. Thus, in those tax returns from UAB, how ABOUT the SS which you more than likely could have purchased your home just on the income alone from an "interest bearing SS account?"

Stockman: "Ron Paul Is Right: The Fed, And The Lunatics That Run It, Are The Heart Of The Problem"

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 09/10/2012

Former Reagan OMB Director David Stockman was 'allowed' on CNBC this morning - much to their chagrin now we suspect - and espoused his own brand of truthiness, starting with this epic tirade:

"Ron Paul is the only one who is right about the Fed, and the Fed is the heart of the problem. They have destroyed the capital markets and the money markets; interest rates mean nothing; everything is trading off the Fed and Wall Street isn't even home - as it's now a bunch of computers trading word-clouds emitted by this central banker and that"

In this environment, he goes on, everyone is being given the wrong signal - i.e. the Ryan/Romney campaign is abnout restoring vibrant capitalism; how can you do that when the financial markets are dead - the lifeblood of a capitalist system. And that is the problem today.

An excellent discussion ensues diving into the lack of fiscal discipline (that is enabled by a Fed ZIRP) as "[politicians] will never do it when you can keep borrowing free-money forever" and summed up nicely with this subtle sentence:

"The Fed (and the lunatics that run it) are telling the whole world untruths about the cost of money and the price of risk."

LS, a journalist whistleblower, you are also this important link to our future:

"... Baltasar Garzon: It is injustice, because the US is conducting a criminal investigation into WikiLeaks – that’s according to few, but nevertheless very reliable, reports. This case targets mostly Julian Assange, but other founders of the organization are also involved. In this respect, it is absolutely clear to us that such investigation and prosecution of a journalist who was, in essence, just doing his job, violates freedom of speech in the US, a country which prides itself in always defending freedom of speech, a value firmly stipulated in its constitution. As soon as we clear that up, we’ll be able to say whether this case is in line with the law. So far, the statements made by some prominent American politicians indicate that he could be indicted under the Espionage Act, a law which has not been enforced since the Cold War. I do not think Mr. Assange is a spy. He merely published information he received from outside sources through WikiLeaks; information that was available to thousands of people. All he did was exercise his right to freedom of information – he received and shared it.

I am much more surprised that there has been no investigation into the glaring crimes documented in those leaked reports featuring the US interference – via different channels of information or proxies in various states – with issues that have absolutely no relation to either national security or the safety of the American citizens or defense, but rather are indicative of the internal disorder in the United States.

Take the case of Don Siegelman that with Eddie Curran who was hackwriter on the sports deck (Roger Shuler on the other hand was a sportswriter) at the Mobile Press Register. That is until he got into a hassle, some say with fists, with another writer. He was given a new assignment on the other side of the room as and investigative reporter, something he had never done. He suddenly started writing big headline stories. The curious thing was that they had an underlying common thread - a legal issue. It seems that they all started with a courthouse rumor that he had apparently gotten from his lawyer father.

Things changed when another Mobile boy, not that much older than Eddie, got appointed Alabama's Attorney General - Bill Pryor. Pryor is son of Malcombe Pryor, former band director at McGill-Toolen Catholic High School. Don was Catholic but attended public schools.

While Don was Lt. Gov., Pryor made headlines after Don as a private attorney filed a suit on behalf of the University of South Alabama Hospitals against several cigarette companies. Pryor, who was opposed to suing these companies, declared that he was the AG and only he could represent the university. Pryor soon set up and investigation unit headed by Assistant AG Troy King to dig up dirt on Don

Pryor then started leaking info from the investigation to Eddie who then would write scandalous stories about Don. like the one about Don and Lori selling their house in Montgomery.

When Pryor ran for a full term, he hired Karl Rove to run his campaign. Karl's wife Darby and I started high school together when Don was a senior. Karl when on the the White House and managed to get Bill Pryor appointed to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, Mark Fuller as US District Judge and Leura Canary as US Attorney. Leura Canary, husband Bill Canary was Rove's partner in political races in Alabama including Pryor's.

Given all this, does anyone believe that Mark Pryor, who claims to have recused himself from Dons' appeal never had a conversation over coffee with the judges who did sit on Don's appeal and not tell them what he thought about Don?

That's why Thursday-July14,2005 is a date I'll always remember when I presented the Chesapeake,Va. District Court judge(was in court with the criminal David W. Bouchard) this letter from my Congressman:

July 5,2005

Dear Mr. Spruill:Thank you for your letter dated July 4,2005 expressing your concerns about the Supreme Court under the leadership of Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist. I appreciate you apprising me of your views on this issue.

Please be assured that I will keep your views in mind as this issue comes before me. Please feelfree to contact me in the future on other issues which may be of concern to you.

. Wilkinson talked about his Thursday- July14,2005 interview with Bush in the New York Times[1],Wednesday-July20,2005 which could not have undermined his candidacy amongst the Bush inner circle because Judge John Roberts was chosen by Bush- Tuesday-July19,2005 at 12:35 p.m.to offer him the job .[2]

You undoubtedly are correct that arrogance drives a lot of this corruption. In my case, the judges on 11th Cir., think they can write that I did not file a certain key document seeking discovery, and I will be too stupid to know differently. We pay their salaries, and we pay for the entire court system, and yet they think we are a bunch of clods. We need an Occupy Law Street movement in this country, similar to Occupy Wall Street. Those two "streets" work hand in hand to corrupt our democracy from top to bottom.

a painting "the arrest as Sisamnes" by Gerard David hangs in the court room today in Bruges Belgium; it depicts the arrest of a corrupt judge who has delivered an unjust verdcit based on a bribe or payoff and in a later painting by David the Judge is beaten to death and his skin is used to upholster the seat of the next Judge, his son.

The diptych still hangs in Bruges as it hung for centuries to remind the Judges that they must hand down JUSTICE in a right manner.....could we use a painting that would instill a fear among judges today.....or more aptly put.... judge not unjustly lest ye be judged....or skinned?

David in S. Alabama, thanks for the history of the doughboy Karl Rove; I should have known he had his evil beginnings in Alabama. He is like a disease unleashed on the people of the United States and there is no vaccine to curtail him so far. If Obama gets reelected it would be fitting that he erase some of the appointed judges in the state of Alabama and the south and cure the impending epidemic of deceit, lies, and criminality that is eating away at our freedom and our very lifeblood.

More on Curran, Rove's wife Darby and Bill Pryor. Some body needs to poke around Mobile and see if there is connection beteen the fathers of Darby Hickson Rove, Edddie Curran and Bill Pryor. They all seem to be from the same generation, at two of them are Catholic, and they may have gone to scho;; together and may have grwown up in the same neighbor hoods. Was there some bad blood from the past that is at the root of all this travestry?